The decision to commit to an upgrade came from the BRIDGE project partners meeting held in April 2005. It was intended that the new version would cover all of the issues that Electoral Management Bodies have to deal with during the electoral cycle. As part of the upgrade, the number of BRIDGE modules has been increased from ten (in Version 1) to twenty-three (in Version 2). The new curriculum covers topics such as Electoral Dispute Resolution, Electoral Management Design and External Voting.
Since being given the green light, the staff of the BRIDGE Project Office (part of International Services) based in the AEC's Melbourne State Office, together with over fifty electoral experts from throughout the world, have worked tirelessly towards to the finalisation of Version 2.
The March 2007 expansion of the BRIDGE partnership to its current membership of five organisations', the AEC, International IDEA, IFES, the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division and the United Nations Development Programme confirmed the status of BRIDGE as the pre-eminent vocational electoral administration course available worldwide. The imminent release of version 2 provides further confirmation of the partners' commitment to ensuring that BRIDGE will be a cutting-edge product, reflecting the contemporary challenges faced by its users around the world.
The new course materials have been loaded to the BRIDGE website and made available to accredited facilitators of the course.
